Minecraft Commercial Use

The Brand And Assets Guidelines define the allowed use of the Minecraft name, brand, and other assets. This is not limited to websites and servers but also things like merchandise.

The Commercial usage guidelines allow some leniency with respect to limited commercial activities. Previously, server owners were not allowed to sell items on their servers, in accordance with the EULA. New allowances for monetization can be found within these guidelines.

Information for server owners

Below are some additional clarifications and a few examples to help you interpret the Commercial usage guidelines when it comes to servers. However, this help article does not replace the Commercial usage guidelines. Please note that not all features in this article are available in the unmodded version of Minecraft and that most things (except for “capes”) are okay to offer for free or for soft currency.

Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including, but not limited to, Bitcoins. Soft currency is available in-game only and has no real-world value. You may not sell soft currency for hard currency, neither separately or along with ranks as a single or recurring payout. This is regardless of what you can use the soft currency for.

Because the Commercial usage guidelines state that you may charge for access to your server only if you make a single charge per person that is the same for everyone, you may not sell “lives” or reduced ban time for hard currency. If you have a single entrance fee for your server, it needs to be the same for all players, including the ones connecting for the first time.

The Commercial usage guidelines also state that you may give everyone you charge access to all the Mods that you choose to have on your server, except only in respect of genuine admin tools/mods which should be reserved for administrators. Because of this, you may not sell “unbans”, “unmutes” or similar admin tools for your server for hard currency, regardless of who receives the money.

Additionally, the Commercial usage guidelines state that you may sell cosmetic items, except for “capes”, if the item sold does not give a user an unfair gameplay advantage over anyone else on the server. Due to this, you are not allowed to sell the following for hard currency:

The ability to:

use a portable crafting table, chest, ender chest, compass, etc.

set the time of day or weather, for yourself or others, other than in places where the intended server's gameplay does not occur, such as the lobby of a minigame server.

clear your inventory.

respawn.

create teleportation points, no matter who can use them.

teleport to a saved location (commonly, the /home command).

teleport to your last location (commonly, the /back command).

see other players’ inventory, other than in creative mode.

see a list of players that are nearby, other than in creative mode.

see the crafting recipe for an item, or the ability to craft an item automatically.

remove the enchantment from an item.

automatically sell blocks that you mine.

automatically compress resources to their block form.

fly in places where the intended server's gameplay occurs.

edit several blocks at the same time, regardless of where on the server you can do it.

keep your inventory or specific items when you die.

A non-cosmetic item or perk:

that is dropped in an area accessible by everyone, whether other players are notified of the drop or not.

as a prize after fighting a boss in an area accessible by everyone, whether other players are notified of the event or not.

Bedrock blocks or other non-cosmetic items.

Schematics, regardless of the game mode.

Higher bandwidth, or other improved connections to the server.

Access to contests based on stats (i.e. most blocks mined etc.), if the prize is not cosmetic.

Decreased cooldown for non-cosmetic commands.

Items or perks that affect gameplay or give the player an unfair advantage, even if they are also available through soft currency purchase, or just by playing the game for a certain time.

We have decided to allow larger and additional plots on creative mode servers to be sold for hard currency (real money).

The above list of examples is not exhaustive but meant to provide you with answers to the most frequently asked questions. If something is not covered by the Commercial usage guidelines, that probably means that we do not want you to do it.

If you need to send a report regarding a server, please visit this article.

If you own a server and have questions regarding the above, please contact us here.